One of the primary steps in interfaith understanding and communication is to "find out" about "the other." If I want someone to know me, I really need them to know me in terms of my beliefs, my culture, my traditions, my history, my family— in fact, I need them to really understand the background experiences and ideologies that have colored and shaped the pages of my life because who I really "am" derives from them.

Understanding the other religiously has many levels of reality. That reality is encountered in dialogue, in joint activities of both a practical, and a theological and spiritual dimension, in prayer and meditation, in sharing common goals... More importantly, an "encounter reality" is the experience of the heart for every person who steps outside of what is known and meets the faith tradition of another. Such an encounter is at the core of what Raimon Panikkar would describe as the "dialogical dialogue" in which the other becomes another source of self-understanding. Religious encounter brings participants together in the presence of the one single Source, the ultimate reality, in the process of which each becomes a subjective so-journer with the other.

The Etz hayim—"Tree of Life" glossaries: Christian terms and concepts for Jews, and Jewish terms and concepts for Christians, are one part of that subjective journeying experience.